My uncle once wrote to me that, ‘starry nights, fragrant sunsets and pastel mornings punctuated by birdsong are heaven-sent balms to a ragged soul – as are the daily blessings of food, friendship, faith and those acts of love and warmth which constantly rekindle peace.’

Oh yes.

Here are this week’s 39 things, from my soul – quietened into happy stillness and wholeness – to yours.

508 Showering outside under the Milky Way

509 Scott’s secret garden in the dunes

510 Murray taking the boys on night drives through the valley, looking for bush pigs

511 Idyllic morning at the lagoon: wallowing, digging, splashing

512 Overcast late afternoon on the beach – rolling down dunes

513 Cam so chuffed with his new pyjamas

514 Gas geysers fixed

515 Murray waxing lyrical about my baked potatoes and chicken

516 Lola swimming halfway across the lagoon to me and Cam on the paddle ski

517 Brittle crackly sand

518 Hilarious Bill-Bailey-type ridiculousness with Murray

519 Sea gulls in a big sky

520 Knysna turaco swooping red and low and glorious in the garden

521 Dusky flycatchers

522 Empty beach

523 Open river mouth

524 Being remembered by the lady at the farm shop (of Scott: ‘Sjoe but he’s got so big!’)

525 Rock pools at low tide – bright sea gardens unwrapped

526 Pyjama sunrise and other stories

527 Sand in our slippers

528 Thick creamy yellow fresh farm milk

529 Shopping in Plett on a rainy day

530 Calling birds in the forest from my iPad (Roberts Multimedia suite – an early birthday gift)

531 Murray’s tranquil guitar sounds while I make pasta

532 Boys finding caves and hidey-holes in the rocks

533 Harry and Nettie spending the night

534 Intriguing, possibly-expired ingredients in the holiday grocery cupboard

535 Otherworldly sea anemone – strange tugging suck on my finger

536 Saying to the boys, ‘No rush,’ and meaning it

537 Lying flat on my back in the forest – staring up into the canopy

538 Vervet monkeys in Forest Drive

539 Wagtail on the kitchen sink

540 Guinea fowl feather in the grass

541 Wood owl’s deep soft call in the ink of night

542 Car breaking down on the way home – God causes all things to work for our good

543 Prayers at the petrol station

544 Trusting the towing service guy and the mechanic guy and trusting God about the insurance company guy

545 Avis

546 Us – carried fast and squashed in a small metal box – on roads through rain – to home and safe and bed at last